Mr. Chair, I want to thank everyone for being here today.

I think it's a great irony that Imagine Canada is touring around, visiting us MPs today, promoting the charitable sector, and promoting the important work they're doing. Social enterprise is very much on their minds. I think, and I'm hoping, that this study and the recommendations from this committee are going to be very helpful to the government in looking at ways we can be promoting, encouraging, and supporting greater social enterprise and social finance in the country.

One of the things a few of the charities have raised with us is their concern about their charitable status if part of the social enterprise is engaging in some commercial activity. I'm going to give you an example. There is a place called Destination Cafe in Mississauga that I'm familiar with. It specifically helps individuals with mental illness-related issues. It is affiliated to some degree with the Canadian Mental Health Association. Basically, it provides housing and employment opportunities in running a cafe. The cafe is on the ground floor. The apartments are on the second floor. The people who live in the building also work. They are earning commercial revenue as that social enterprise. As I understand it, if the revenue is a higher percentage of their overall budget in a year, it could jeopardize their charitable status.

I'd like someone to explain to me how that works, because I think that would be a real shame. I think it would be a shame if we had a group doing some excellent work on the ground, but because of the technical requirements in the rules around how much revenue they can bring in as a percentage of their overall budget it could threaten their charitable status.

I don't know who the best person is to answer. Cathy, are you the best person to answer that? Maybe you could walk us through how that would work with a typical charity that wants to do something like that.

Brad Butt

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